In our increasingly pluralistic societies and rapidly globalising world, the Faculty of Religion and Theology at VU Amsterdam aims to create an interdisciplinary, interculturally, and interreligious research environment, continuously engaged in dialogue.
Research Teams FRT
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About the Research Teams
Some teams are more permanent, others are project-based. All Research Teams aspire to be places where senior and junior researchers, alike, meet and discuss each other’s work. Research Teams present also an opportunity to work together on joint and individual publications, grant applications and valorization projects. We stimulate critical reflection, mutual enrichment and dialogue between different (non-)religious traditions, research approaches, and disciplines.
The Research Teams provide our researchers with the opportunity to:
- broaden their horizons by integrating individual projects into larger, thematic frameworks; and,
- deepen their insights by engaging in critical conversation with peers.
They also provide our PhD and (Research) Master students, and colleagues from partner institutions with opportunities to participate in the academic discourse and to find their own place within the field of their expertise. As a faculty, our strategic goals are academic excellence, societal relevance, and (religious) commitment. By bundling our strengths intelligently, the Research Teams boost the pursuit of those goals.
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Foci of the Research Teams
The foci of our Research Teams vary from specific (confessional) traditions, and dialogue between traditions, to the investigation and facilitation of the interaction between religion and society at large. Most teams approach their theme from a range of disciplines, whether literary, historical, systematic, or empirical. The foci of our Research Teams can be described around three fundamental core themes:
- Intra-religious, internal developments within (religious) traditions,
- Interreligious relations and dialogue,
- Societal developments.
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Research Teams
- Cities of God: Lived Christianity in Amsterdam
- New Testament and Christian Origins
- Contextual Biblical Interpretation and Theologies
- Decolonizing Interreligious Studies
- Digital Approaches to Sacred Texts
- Future of Academic Theology/Religious Studies
- Islamic Theology
- Peace, Trauma, and Religion
- Reformed and Evangelical Theology
- Religion for Sustainable Societies
- Religious History and Heritage
- Strong Religion and Extreme Beliefs
- Transformations of Religiosity